Pre-breeding for effective use of plant genetic resources A new e-learning course

The Global Partnership Initiative for Plant Breeding Capacity Building (GIPB) is pleased to announce a new e-learning course – Pre-breeding for Effective Use of Plant Genetic Resources.

The importance of germplasm resources for crop improvement is widely recognized by plant breeders. However over reliance on ‘safe and familiar’ parents of similar genetic backgrounds to provide genetic traits has led to an unsustainably narrow genetic base in many crop varieties and breeding materials.

To balance this, previously neglected pools of heritable genetic variations need to be used to produce new and improved crop varieties, for example, ones that give a higher yield yet require fewer inputs. These kinds of variations can be found, for example, in crop wild relatives and local landraces.

Pre-breeding is the work to identify those desirable traits and create materials that breeders can use. Premised on close collaboration between genebank curators and plant breeders, it is the necessary first step in the use of diversity arising from wild relatives and other unimproved materials.

The course is designed primarily for plant breeders and germplasm curators but will be useful also to others involved in capacity building in crop improvement. It combines elements of both conventional germplasm management and plant breeding with novel molecular biology and analytical techniques.

This course was jointly sponsored by Bioversity International, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the Global Crop Diversity Trust, using the GIPB platform.

Click here to access the course or request a CD version. Please note you will need to register to access the course.